In Springtime and in May
My apologies for missing a post. I am finding it a problem, some weeks, to find time to post twice a week, and I may have to change to posting once a week only. If I decide to do this, I promise I’ll make a proper announcement of the change.
It’s still snowdrop time outside, but we have arrived at the section of The New Pagans’ Handbook that deals with May Eve and May Day:
Preamble
I begin with May Eve because it was one of the two major festivals of Witchcraft, the other being the Hallows, and its ceremonies, some of which are preserved in folk custom, can give us the flavour of May Day, which was more a feast for the generality.
As the Hallows is a festival of death, May Day is the celebration of sex. In the traditional witchcraft festival the sex act is both practised and glorified. The central act is the copulation of the Deities, by which act, and it is intended to be mystical, Summer is made possible. The rituals involved the initial drinking of special potions by the men to enhance their virility; the procession of the nearly naked Goddess; the obeisance of the God and His reluctance, feigned, to be Her lover; the love chase of the ladies after the men, and then the final coupling of the happy pair, He being in full animal skin regalia.
